How to Save a Life
by DeeDeeloris
Summary: Reed has to give blood for extra credit and is having an anxiety attack when he meets someone who helps him through it. Rane fluff! Reed and Shane from CP Coulter's Dalton. Read it, it's cute. xD


**Hey! This is a Rane one-shot that has been in my head forever. I love giving blood and the last time I did it this idea popped into my head and I loved it! So I decided to write it xD Reed is like my baby, I completely adore him! And this is why I decided to make this a Rane fic. It's completely Rane and completely fluff. **

**Everything in this is accurate. This is the real process you go through to give blood at school so I'm not making any of the questions or anything like that up, I promise! **

**I hope you like it! **

**Btw, I don't own Shane or Reed, of course. However, I do own the idea. **

**Enjoy!**

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_You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. _

To say that Reed Van Kamp was nervous would be an understatement. Today was the day. The day of the blood drive that he had signed up for in order to get extra credit in his math class. He didn't really have a phobia of needles, but the fact that someone would be taking the blood out of his body really bothered him. But it was for a good cause…

He was currently in his English class and he couldn't focus on anything except that his appointment to give blood was in 10 minutes. Apparently his best friend, Kurt had noticed his apprehension because he leaned over and whispered, "Reed? Are you going to pass out before you've even given any blood?"

Kurt was clearly amused at the situation, unlike Reed who was still freaking out. "I don't know…" He whispered back, "maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"Reed, you need this extra credit. It's well worth giving a little blood. Plus, you get to save a life."

"Yeah, but It's my blood Kurt. I need my blood!" he whispered, even more panicky.

Kurt laughed quietly at his friend. "Your body makes more blood and I'm sure someone else needs it a little more than you do. Besides, you need the extra credit. You are going to be fine. Just relax."

"I just don't understand why you couldn't have signed up with me-" Reed was interrupted by his teachers stern voice.

"Mr. Van Kamp, do you have something you would like to share with the class?"

Reed looked down at his desk and mumbled. "No, sir."

"Great, so if I may continue… The Cavalier poets were…"

Reed drowned out the rest of what his teacher was saying and focused once again on the clock, which now said he had only 5 minutes until he had to leave. And he spent those next 5 minutes panicking and thinking of everything that could possibly go wrong.

What is the lady slipped and put the needle in the wrong vain or missed his vain completely? What if they forgot about him and they took too much of his blood? Or what if they were really vampires instead of nurses and were just going to drink all his blood until he was completely dry? Okay, so the last one was a little ridiculous, but it was still a small possibility!

When he was lost in thought about ways to get out of not giving blood but getting the extra credit the bell rang to signal the end of class. But for Reed it signaled that it was time for his to drain the blood out of his body. He doesn't know how he found the courage to stand up, but it probably had something to do with Kurt telling him he had to leave the class sometime today.

_Here I go. I can do this. _

He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder as he headed out of the classroom and into the hallway. He stopped outside by the door to search through his bag and find the pass they had given his when he signed up that told him what room to go to. The pass said that he was supposed to go to the health science classroom. Reed had to ask some random kid for directions because he had never been to that room before. He was more of a fine arts person than a science person.

After getting lost at least twice he finally found his way to the classroom. It was a small, crowded room with a line of people signing in at the door. On one side of the room were desks and on the other side was a man handing out food and drinks. When it was his turn Reed stepped up to sign in. His hand was now shaking so hard that it looked like a two year old could have written his name clearer.

The lady at the sign in sheet was friendly enough, telling his to grab a snack and drink and then to wait in one of the chairs to be called over and registered. Well, there was no turning back now. He had to do this.

He walked over and grabbed a bottle of water and a package of Pop-Tarts and took a seat next to a tan kid who looked like he was much calmer than he was. The boy smiled up at him as he sat down, hands still shaking as he tried to open his food. He felt eyes on him so he turned his head and sure enough the kid was looking down at him with a very amused expression. "You okay?"

Reed only nodded, not trusting his voice to come out strong enough to be convincing. He continued attempting to open his snack but his hands were shaking way too much. Soon, the kid leaned over and grabbed the Pop-Tarts, opening them in one try and handing them back to Reed who muttered a thank you and began to eat, now thoroughly embarrassed.

"I'm guessing this is the first time you've ever done this?" he said, smiling at Reed.

Reed still only nodded but this time acknowledged the boy a little more than he previously had.

"Well, don't worry. You'll be fine. I do it all the time. It's really not as bad as you think." The boy really was being very friendly and Reed couldn't help but smile back and thank him again for his moral support.

That's when a lady at one of the two computers called the boy over to register him next and Reed was alone once again. He sat sipping his water and eating his Pop-Tarts until he was called up. He stood at the computer as the woman asked him for all his information and for his ID. Once she got through with this she handed him two papers. "Okay, so here is your reading material. Read it before you fill out the other paper. It's very short but it will tell you what to expect. And be sure to answer all the questions on the back truthfully and honestly."

He took the papers to a desk that was secluded to the back and began reading his packet, which actually specified the different types of sex making Reed blush bright red and flip to the other side of the packet where it told him to make sure he didn't feel sick or anything.

All the things in his reading material were pretty much all self explanatory or irrelevant so he decided to move on to answering the questions on the other sheet. They all started out pretty customary_; _**Have you read the educational material? Have you taken any aspirin in the past48 hours? Have you come into contact with someone else's blood in the past 12 months?**And then they got a little more… personal, successfully making Reed feel really awkward and like everyone was suddenly staring at him; **In the past 12 months have you had sexual contact with anyone who is AIDS/HIV positive? In the past 12 months have you had sexual contact with a prostitute or anyone else who takes money or drugs or other payment for sex? In the past 12 months have you been treated for syphilis? Have you ever had sexual contact with someone who was born or lived in Africa?**

_Okay, what? Why do they need to know if I did THAT with someone from Africa?_

Once he had finished filling out "no" to all of the awkward and random questions on the sheet he signed his name where he was told and sat there, finishing his last Pop-Tart. About a minute after he finished he finished eating a man came into the room and asked if anyone was ready. He didn't even have time to brace himself when the sign in lady pointed to him, sealing his fate. He had really liked that lady until she did that. His eyes widened as he realized the man was waiting for him to stand up and follow him.

He finally found the strength in his legs and stood, but on his way walking through the isle of desks his foot caught the side of one of them, sending him face first into the ground. The people around him gasped but he merely picked himself up like nothing had happened and kept walking as everyone kept asking him if he was okay. Honestly, he was completely fine. That fall was not that bad. He had felt much worse but he was probably just used to falling.

The man leading him out to the front of the school where the blood busses were parked seemed very bored with his job. When they had made it outside Reed's hands started sweating and shaking again. Thankfully the man didn't seem to notice as he pointed to the last bus out of the three that were parked. "Just go in there and sit down. Someone will be with you shortly."

And just like that the man was walking back into the room, leaving Reed alone outside the bus. He carefully opened the door and entered the bus, realizing quickly that it was really freaking cold. He saw a bench and then six chairs where the donators sat to give their blood. On the other side of the small bench were two small looking rooms. One looked like it had a couple people in it and the other looked empty. There were four nurses working to tend to one other person who was in the middle of giving blood. He saw the blood bag on the floor where the blood was collecting and suddenly felt light headed, knowing that that would be his blood very soon.

The door to one of the small rooms opened and a boy about his own age exited. This guy had unruly curls and looked way too happy to be here. His eyes were bright and reminded Reed of a puppy. When the boy looked at him he wore the friendliest smile he had ever seen before his eyes widened. Reed only looked on in confusion as the boy stood there looking at him in some kind of amazement or shock. And he couldn't help but think how familiar this kid looked. But he was sure that if he had seen him before he would defiantly remember those eyes. The man who was in the room with the boy came out and started to set him up in one of the chairs.

That's when a smaller woman looked at Reed and ushered him into the other small room. Amazingly, this smaller room was even colder than the rest of the bus, which didn't make much sense because the room was so crowded with only the two of them in there. You would think that the body heat would make the room warmer, but no. He felt like he was in a freezer. But when Reed looked up to his right he saw the blood bags and started to feel his skin heat up. Maybe that's why they kept this room so cold.

The woman was quiet but seemed nice enough as she asked him for his papers and then started to measure his heart beat. He was sure his heart was beating faster than normal because his anxiety was through the roof. How was that other kid so freaking calm? And why did he look so familiar…?

The woman took his blood pressure and said that everything seemed normal so far. Well, that was good, right? And then she asked for his middle finger and he didn't really understand what was happening until he felt the prick and jumped slightly. She laughed a little and apologized as she explained she needed to get some blood to check his iron levels. She started to squeeze his finger and Reed saw the blood start to slowly flow out and couldn't take looking at anymore. He shut his eyes tight and turned his head the other way as he felt her continue to squeeze the blood out of his finger.

The woman calmly asked him if he was okay but all he could do is nod in return. She placed his hand down. "All done." She said cheerily. He looked down to his finger, which now had a Band-Aid on it. He breathed out in relief that that part of the process was over.

The little machine on the small table in the room beeped and she smiled, telling him that his iron level was great and then she asked him a very more questions about his height, weight, etc.

Once she finished with that she grabbed one of the blood bags he had seen earlier and stood up, leading him out the door. He was grateful to finally be leaving the freezer room but then he realized that this was about to really happen, in real life. His blood was about to be drained from his body.

As the woman walked him to a chair Reed got distracted from his anxiety to notice that he was being placed in the seat directly next to the boy he had seen earlier. And the boy still looked cheery as ever, even with a needle in his arm. He smiled brightly at Reed, waving to him with his free hand and said "Hi!"

Reed laid back in the chair as he was instructed by the nurse and responded to the boy with a shy "Hello."

"You ready?" He said, as if he were speaking about going on an amusement park ride rather than giving blood.

Reed shrugged and replied, "I guess so."

"First time?" He asked knowingly.

Reed nodded and took the stress ball that the nurse handed him while she was hooking stuff up behind him.

"I'm Shane, by the way." And wow, this boy was really a lot happier than he should be.

"I'm Reed. Wait, are you…? Do you have a brother?" Reed specifically remembers that one of his best friends Blaine, had his brother coming to school for the first time at Dalton this year. And when he made the connection to Blaine and this Shane guy he could definitely see a lot of resemblance.

Shane smiled brightly. "Yeah, my older brother's name is Blaine. Do you know him? He goes here."

Reed nodded and smiled because now everything made sense. Shane looked so familiar because he resembled a less reserved version of Blaine. "Yeah, Blaine is one of my best friends actually."

"No way! That's awesome! We'll probably get to hang out sometime then. "

"Umm, yeah… I guess so." Shane was really enthusiastic. It wasn't a bad thing but it was a lot to get used to at first. Reed looked down to Shane's blood bag and pointed to it, asking the one question that he really wanted to know but was too scared to ask before. "Does it hurt? Can you like feel it coming out of you…?"

Shane laughed and responded kindly, "Not at all actually. I don't feel a thing."

Reed noticed that Shane's laugh was… well, he didn't know how to describe it… beautiful? Was it weird to call another boy's laugh beautiful? Oh, whatever. Shane's laugh was positively beautiful. And Reed couldn't help but laugh, as well.

Reed nodded, now a little reassured before the nurse came back and asked him to squeeze the ball a few times and so that she could find his vain. She found it right away and taped the tube of the blood bag to Reed's wrist. She cleaned his arm where his vain was and he started to breathe heavier, knowing that she was seconds away from putting the needle in. Then he saw the needle and _holy crap that huge needle is going into his arm_? She tried to reassure him and told him to relax but it really didn't help. Then he heard Shane start talking to him. "Hey, Reed… relax. It's not that bad. Just breathe."

Reed really didn't understand why Shane's voice was so calming to him but it was. His breathing slowed and his muscles relaxed and he didn't even notice she had slipped the needle into his arm until she left and he looked down to his arm. "That's it?" he asked quietly to himself.

But Shane had heard him because he decided to answer, "That's it." When Reed looked up he was getting the most calming smile from the other boy and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Thanks…"

"No problem." He said sincerely. "So can I ask you a question?"

Reed couldn't imagine what it was Shane would want to ask him but he agreed anyway. "Sure."

"If you have a fear of needles then why are you donating blood?" he said laughing lightly, once again making Reed internally swoon over the beauty of it.

"Well, I'm actually not really afraid of needles. I just don't like the idea of my blood leaving my body."

Shane looked confused by this answer and laughed again. "So, I'll ask you again. Why are you donating blood?"

"My math teacher made it extra credit for us to give blood and I really need it."

"Ah… I see. It's not that bad? Is it?"

Reed looked down at the tube that held his blood that was leaving his arm and started to get a little nervous again so he decided to look back up to Shane. "I guess not."

Shane must have sensed is nervousness because he responded, "Well, just talk to me and you'll be fine. You'll be done before you know it."

Reed agreed to this because seriously, how could he refuse anything from that smile Shane was giving him? It was like a puppy! Reed talked about nothing important for the next few minutes. Shane only asked him simple questions about his classes, hobbies, favorite foods, and anything else that was pointless but still distracting. The weird thing about it was that Reed had never seen someone so genuinely interested in him like this before.

What Reed hadn't thought about was the fact that Shane had started giving blood before him. When one of the nurses came by and told him he was done Shane smiled brightly at him as he was being unhooked from the bag. They gave him a cotton ball and told him to hold his hand straight up into the air and he did so while he chose the color blue for the wrap to go on his arm.

That's when it hit him. He still wasn't done and the only thing that was actually keeping him from losing his mind was about to leave any second. His eyes widened as they bandaged Shane up and he stood from his chair.

Shane looked down at him and Reed could tell this kid could read him like a book. Shane asked the nurse something but Reed couldn't even comprehend what it was because he was suddenly very worried about all the blood being pumped from his body. He all of a sudden became very aware of the needle buried in his arm and the feeling was very uncomfortable. The part of the tube resting on his wrist, he suddenly noticed felt very warm and that just reminded him more about the blood! He should have definitely kept this blood in his body!

When he looked back up, expecting to see Shane gone he was surprised because Shane was still there and he wasn't leaving. He was actually sitting back down. Reed looked up at him with questioning eyes and he replied with a shrug. "I felt a little dizzy… they said I could sit and wait a little for it to pass."

A male nurse came by and handed Shane a bottle of cranberry juice and a cool towel for his head. "Oh, juice!" he said, sounding very much like he was five years old. Shane looked back over to Reed, "So, where were we? Weren't you telling me about that annoying guy in your art class?"

Reed nodded and continued where he had left off with his story and before he knew it he was calming down again. Finally his nurse came by with the news that he was done. Reed breathed a sigh of relief but still couldn't look as she pulled the needle out of his arm. As he sat with his arm in the air Shane sat up and smiled at him. "You did it!"

"Yeah, I'm just glad it's over." He said with another sigh of relief. The nurse came over and asked him what color wrap he wanted and he chose green.

"Is green your favorite color?" Shane asked out of nowhere.

"Today it is." He responded, smiling.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have a gorgeous smile?" Shane asked almost immediately.

Reed froze and looked up because he wasn't sure if he was imagining things or if Blaine's brother really was flirting with him. From the look on Shane's face he wasn't imagining things. "Umm… not really, no."

Shane seemed to notice Reed's discomfort for the thousandths time that day and suddenly blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Wow, sorry. That was really forward. It kind of just slipped out. Ignore it. Please just ignore it."

Reed shook his head and watched as his arm got wrapped up. "It's fine. It just caught me off guard…"

"I should just pre-apologize for anything that comes out of my mouth in the future. I have no filter. My friends just learn to ignore it most of the time." He said, laughing nervously.

Reed laughed at how flustered Shane was getting, "Really, Shane. It's fine. I promise."

Shane nodded and got up and Reed did the same. The nurse asked him if he felt dizzy at all and he didn't but then he took a step towards the door, closed his eyes, and got prepared to go down and meet the floor as suddenly the bus felt like it was moving.

But for some reason he never hit the floor and instead he felt himself fall into a pair of warm arms that were much more welcoming. He opened his eyes and looked up and saw Shane looking down at his with an amused yet worried expression. "Are you okay?"

Reed nodded and wondered how he never noticed the color of Shane's eyes before now. "Yeah, I'm fine. I fall a lot."

Shane laughed a little and guided Reed to lie back down onto the chair he gave blood in. "It's your first time giving blood so it's pretty normal to feel a little dizzy. You get used to it eventually."

A nurse came over and handed him the same thing she had handed Shane when he was dizzy. "Eventually? I don't think I'll be doing this again anytime soon. Besides, this wasn't your first time and you got dizzy." He said as he sipped his juice.

Shane laughed. "Come on, you can't say your experience was really that bad."

"It may not have been the worst experience of my life but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it again. I got my extra credit. I'm done."

"But hey, you saved a life in the process… that's pretty cool, right?" he said, smiling down at Reed.

"Yeah, I guess… But I still don't know if I would be able to do it again."

"Maybe we can do it together next time, too? Talking seemed to calm you down."

Reed was slightly taken back by this answer. Did Shane really like him enough to talk him though giving blood again and maybe even again after that? That was crazy! They didn't even know each other. But he would be lying if he said the idea of talking to Shane more didn't make him feel oddly excited. "I'll consider it." He said.

A few minutes later Shane helped him stand up again and this time it was much more successful. Shane offered to walk him back to the health science room to make sure he didn't pass out or anything and the nurse thought that it was an excellent idea. On their way out Reed felt Shane's carful watch on him, making sure Reed wouldn't fall over again. He stumbled slightly on the steps to leave the bus but Shane was there to catch him, again.

After Reed almost tripped over his feet two more times on the way back to the classroom Shane offered to just carry him back but Reed refused, saying he was perfectly fine on his own. Right after that he ended up stumbling a little and Shane couldn't stop the small giggle that left his lips. Reed smacked his arm playfully and tried not to laugh at how cute Shane's smile was.

Reed made it back to the classroom in one piece, thanks to Shane and grabbed a slice of pizza that the blood drive people had ordered. Shane grabbed three slices. Reed looked at him, highly amused at how excited he was over all the free food he was getting. The two sat down in desks next to each other to eat and just talked for a while.

"So, are you sure you don't just do this for the free food?" Reed asked.

Shane took on a mockingly shocked expression, "What? That's ridiculous! I do this to save lives. Because I'm a hero." He said proudly.

Reed laughed and shook his head, "And you're sure that's the only reason?"

"Of course! The free food, is only a perk." He smiled widely and winked at Reed which made the blonde blush a deep shade of red. "You know, the color red suits you well…"

Reed shook his head and smiled as he continued to blush. "Shut up."

Maybe giving blood wasn't the worst experience he's ever had…

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**Tell me what you think! Love you for reading!**


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